Ideas for Improving Your Health in 2024: 76

Hey everyone, welcome to the Heal Nurse Cheryl podcast. Apologies in advance for the audio today. I am in a new house and I haven't unpacked my audio equipment yet, and that is a story for another day, different catch-up episode. But for today's episode, we are coming into a new year. I can't believe it is already going to be 2024, and as is tradition, I always like to do a New Year's episode that revolves around changing habits and getting healthier New Year. I know that the holidays are such an interesting time because quite often, you know, New Year's is coming and you know that you want to make some changes for the new year, but you're not quite ready to get that started yet, right? You're enjoying the holidays, you're enjoying festive time with food and family and friends, as well you should. But usually once January rolls around again, we kind of decide to quote unquote get back on track or start a new program or do some things differently. So the first The first thing I want to talk about is just getting started with eating healthier. So you've heard me say this before, you know that I do a very keto, low-carb lifestyle. I've been doing that for so many years now, it's really just second nature, and it's been something that has been very easy for me to sustain. So contrary to popular belief, it is something that you can do as a lifestyle. And really, it's interesting, when people say keto, I think they have like a lot of misconceptions, right? So really what My diet is on a day-to-day basis, it's just a whole foods diet. I don't eat a lot of processed food. I don't eat bread or sugar or anything like that. Um, so it's just a very whole foods-based diet, which is very healthy. Um, there's nothing to be worried about with that. Um, certainly if you are worried about or sensitive to saturated fat, you may find a need to moderate that, uh, at some point, but you still can eat a whole foods diet, just healthy fruits, vegetables, very little grains if any. And especially if you have any kind of autoimmune inflammatory processes happening in your body, certainly going off grains is always a good idea. So, so just try to conceive of the way that you're going to eat in this new healthier way as a way to not necessarily put a label on it or be keto or low-carb, but just by the nature of going on a more whole foods-based diet, you're going to be eating less carbs. So whether you choose to call yourself keto or low-carb or any of those things, I wouldn't even worry about that. The key to getting started off for a healthier new year is to just simply start reducing carbs. So I was just actually interviewed about this for the Quit Sugar Summit, which is coming up soon here. It starts on January 8th, and if you use my link, you will get a free ticket. So go to healnourishgrow.com/QuitSugarSummit and you will get your free entrance. They have so many amazing speakers this year. I think there's like 40 speakers, all people who have all different kinds of ways of thinking about healthy lifestyle, of thinking about how to over a sugar addiction, how to just move towards a healthier lifestyle. So again, if you want to take advantage of that free ticket, go to healnourishgrow.com/QuitSugarSummit. Anyway, the way I like to talk about it and talked about some of this in the summit interview is to just start slow. So often what happens at the beginning of the new year, you'll come out of the gate thinking like, I'm gonna exercise every day, I'm gonna change my diet, and I'm gonna do this and do that, and it's a long list of things. And those are all wonderful goals to have for yourself. Don't get me wrong, but where people tend to get off track with this is they take on too many things at once. So I would rather have you make a list of all of those things that you'd like to accomplish in the new year. And then for the first month, maybe just focus on one. And if, for example, it's eating a more whole foods diet or reducing sugar or whatever it is, let's go with reducing sugar since that's what we talk about here. But it might be that for just the first week, you're just reducing slightly. Your sugar, just becoming more aware of what you're eating. You maybe say just no bread the first week, but you may still eat pasta or drink sugary drinks or different things like that. But just cutting out one thing at a time or even going one meal at a time. Okay, for one whole meal I'm gonna go keto, the rest of the meals I'll eat kinda normally. So you're moving into it more slowly because this will make it more likely that your new habits will stick if you don't bring such a shock to the system and if you don't try to change too many things at once. And so then you just slowly build up over time to where you get to a point where you really are just reduce the sugar so slowly that your body hasn't had as much of a chance to react to that. Because one of the things when I was talking to Mike today about the— but sure, so we're talking about really is sugar as an addiction, and it definitely can be for a lot of people. And also it causes a lot of dopamine in the brain, which is your feel-good hormone. And so it can be very difficult to let go of those things. So if you reduce it more slowly over time, you're less likely to notice it and have ill effects from that. So it'll just make the whole process a whole lot easier. And then if on your list Once you've kind of got that in line, maybe for the first 4 to 6 weeks, you're really just working on your diet and you're moving slowly towards a more healthy version of that. And then say the second thing on your list is exercise. Again, it's not like if you're not exercising at all right now, don't say, "I'm gonna exercise 5 days a week for an hour at a time." You want to start more slowly than that. Maybe it's 3 days a week. You commit to do 10 minutes for 3 days a week. And the beauty of that is if that's what you're committed to and you do that and then you get started and you go a little more longer, there's nothing wrong from going— for going longer, and there's nothing stopping you from going longer. But it's a mental shift that makes it a lot easier if you don't try to take on too much at once. So I really highly encourage you to map out whatever your New Year's goals are going to be, or whatever your 2024 goals are going to be, then just take them in very manageable chunks. Also, another mental trick that you can try when you're trying to change habits is to just start thinking of yourself as a different person. So if you have a person that you follow or look up to, or the way that they look, or the way that they eat, or something like that. Just think, what would X person do? Let's call her Jane. What would Jane do? And so you'll just think about, in this situation, if I were going to choose between this burger with a bun and fries, or I was going to choose between a bun without, or a bun without a burger, without a bun, and a side of broccoli instead, what would Jane eat? What would Jane, and what has gotten Jane to her goal in how she eats and how she looks, or whatever your goal is. So starting to think of yourself as a different person almost, and then making decisions as if you were that person. So it's almost kind of the idea of fake it until you make it. You just start to do the habits that you would do if you were that quote unquote perfect healthy person, right? And I just did the air quotes for those of you that are only listening on audio, but it's gonna be different for every person. It's gonna be different for what it is for you, but you just start making this mental change as thinking as if you were this different person. How would you make your decisions? Differently. So that's a great mental trick that you can try. I also have, you know, part of changing things is definitely getting yourself in a good place mentally. And I feel like that not enough emphasis is put on that, and a little bit more came to light like during the pandemic where people were really starting to suffer from not having their normal daily activities and not being with people and just being kind of overall depressed about the whole situation. So it has become more prevalent, I think, and more accepted, but to think more about mental health. And that's certainly a wonderful thing, but it's still a thing that is not as focused on, I feel like, in the health and wellness space. It's more focused on like what you're eating and how you're exercising and meditation, all those really wonderful things, but less about just mentally how you're doing and how you're feeling. So one of the tools that I have on the website and making goals for 2024, there's a, um, it's if you go, if you type in the search bar, what is ultimate wellness, there is a worksheet about halfway down and it's really just mapping about your goals and kind of showing you some ways to get to what your core values and goals are. So you want to make your goals match your core values because you don't want to fight against what's in your core, what's in your core of your being, what's important to you. You want to make your goals in alignment with that. That also makes it easier. And then there's a, uh, 12-week happiness and wellness workbook on the website, totally free. And so if you can use some of the exercises in that book, it'll also help get you closer to your goals to what you want to be doing in 2024, how to make yourself feel happier, more productive, more like you can hit your goals. So that's some great tools for you there as well. In addition, if you are working on—

and a free web resources on the website. So I have the Getting Started with Keto Guide. I have the whole shop page. It's got all kinds of tools and products and services that can help you in your wellness journey. So whether it's low-carb protein supplements or there's just— or good cookware, non-toxic cookware, non-toxic skin and makeup, all of this stuff, it can be a lot. It can be overwhelming. And you don't want to get to a point where you overwhelm yourself, but you do want to get to a point where you're making small changes. And some changes are easier than others. For example, the switch to clean beauty. While it was a dietary investment that I did over time. It's not a hard change. It's literally just changing your products, and they're still very effective. They still work really well. All of that stuff that's the same as traditional beauty, but just without all the toxic chemicals and ingredients in it. So that's a really simple change that you can make. Another really simple change is the water that you're drinking. Your water, especially— okay, so I'm back here in Cincinnati and I was before in Sandy, Utah, and I looked up— you can go on the environmental— I think it's the environmental something site. I'll put it in the show notes, but you can look up the water quality in your area. So really all the water treatment plants do is filter out like anything like a bacteria or protozoa that's going to make people like immediately sick. It doesn't filter out all the hormones that are going into the water from people. You know, they're taking birth control hormones they pee it out in the bathroom and then it gets into the water system. And then men are drinking those as well. Could be contributing to all the low testosterone numbers in the world today. Who knows? But there's so many other things in the water as well. One of the things that was in our water in Utah was either— it was either 40 or 400. I'm not sure of the number of times the level established as safe by the EPA. And there were multiple things in the water like that. Not just that one, there were so many. Um, and then here in Cincinnati, it's the same thing. It's been in the news lately about the poor water quality almost across the board in any community in Cincinnati, how poor the water quality is. So I actually just, as soon as we got here, one of the first things I did was order an under-the-counter reverse osmosis after I had watched a couple of videos about different ones. I realized like how how simple this is actually to install. In Utah, I'd just been using an on-the-counter reverse osmosis system, and I'll put the link to that one in the show notes. The water tastes amazing, it worked really well, and that's a great solution if you're renting or you just don't, you know, want to make an investment in under-the-counter unit. But honestly, it was so easy. I didn't have any leaks. It only took me about maybe 40 minutes to do the full install. Highly recommend And, you know, like always, I did all the research, like which one am I going to get? And the one that I got, I actually have a link for that. I'll put it in the notes below, or I should have a link for that. I had reached out to them and was wanting to work with them because after I saw how easy the install was and the technology that they use and the filters that they offer were far better than anything else that I found on the market. So I'm really happy with that purchase. Delicious, and I look forward to sharing that with you. But, um, that's a simple thing too. The water that you drink is just such a good way to start to eliminate toxins from your lifestyle. The other things about getting healthier— your cookware. Over time, if you've used nonstick cookware for all of your cooking life, like basically all of us have, you'll know that the nonstick surface doesn't last forever. It quits being effective. And when that happens if they get scratched and stuff. If you're using some of the older styles that have a lot of PFOAs or Teflon coverings, those get into your food. They're like forever chemicals. They're not good for you. It's just contributing to the toxic load. There's, there's so many things in our environment that didn't exist many years ago, and it's contributing to all kinds of things. You'll notice that the cancer rates are getting, you know, the age at which people get cancer is getting younger and younger. The prevalence of it is getting more and more. I, I just highly think, and I've heard other people talk about this, that it's related to our environment and the toxic load that we're taking on. So nothing's ever going to be perfect, and again, it can all seem overwhelming. So you want to start with the easiest things that you can do. The other one that I have just— I actually just interviewed David, who's the Chief Technology Officer today, for a future podcast episode, so you'll be able to hear all about this. But your air quality, your air quality also can be a source of putting toxins, stress on your body and preventing you from having optimal health. So something very simple, like at the very least putting a HEPA filter in your bedroom, very easy to do. Their technology also amazing. HypoAir. I have a link for that. healnourishpro.com/hypoair. They're having a really big sale right now. And David actually said that he would honor that price if you mentioned Heal, Nourish, Grow or you use my link or something like that. So even if you hear this later, it's worth a try because he was just like really sincere in his— that he just wants everybody to have better air quality. That's why he's involved with this company. That's why he does what he does. Super knowledgeable. So look forward to that on a future episode of the podcast. But they have a couple of of like you can just plug it into the wall kind of unit. I think it's called the HypoAir Angel, on sale right now. And, um, it's just creating a space. Your body— sleep is the most important thing for your health, and it's the most time that you can be the most rejuvenated. So creating a space in your bedroom environment that's safe, that is free from toxins. So if it's time for a new mattress, for example, consider an organic, non-toxic mattress. They give off off-gases. Like, it's— everything is created for not for optimal health, it's created for like maximum profits. And, um, yeah, for maximum profits, that's really what it's for. So unless you get specifically an organic mattress or one that doesn't put off harmful VOCs, you're sleeping in that every night. You're getting— breathing in air that's potentially not the best for you. So pick whichever one of these speaks to your soul. Like I said, some of them are easy and very inexpensive. Some of them require more of an investment, but there's lots of things that you can do to improve your health in 2024 that don't put a lot of stress on decision-making or things you have to do every day. You just make that change once and then you're done with it and you don't have to think about it anymore. So we have what we're putting on our skins. We have makeup or skincare. Again, you know, I love Beautycounter. That's my favorite healnurture.com/beautycounter. All of these are things I use myself. That's who I decided to work with. The links that I get, the discounts that I get for you guys, it's all because I actually use them and believe in them and have done the research. So that's actually— it's funny, some of my friends would always call me up about different things. They're like, I know you've researched this before, so just tell me what you use for this. But I do have a couple of things 2 mattress ones. I've got the air quality one. I've got the Beauty Counter one. Um, I've got some great supplements on the shop page. So anytime you want to look for any of these discounts, it's just healnourishroche.com/shop. That has everything on there, all the companies that I love and believe in and work with and use for myself. Um, the most recent addition to that, and another way that you can strongly impact your health— now this one is much more an investment, and this is much more down the line. Like, first I would tackle sleep quality. And that is just, like I said, with the air, with the mattress, with— and the cheapest solutions, getting it really dark in the room, getting the right temperature, um, all of those kinds of things that you can do first. Really making sure that you turn off your, um, turn off your devices so that you get good sleep every night. That's a great place to start. So then you work on what you're putting in your body, what you're eating. And then some of these things are like third level. I love the way that David put that today, because it was like, okay, well, that's maybe down the road of things. It's like air quality. And so this next one I'm going to mention, it also might be down the line after you get the rest of your— some of your other things that you're working on with your health. But that is sauna. Sauna has some amazing benefits. So if you go to PubMed and you type in photobiomodulation, that's what light therapy is and sauna therapy, and you'll find all kinds of studies about all the health benefits. Really great for mitochondrial health and amazing for sleep. And so because we are in a new space that had room for it, I've been wanting one of these for years, and that is a Sunlight and Sauna. So if you've been watching my Instagram stories, you'll be seeing that I was posting about that going, getting installed into the house. We had to cut open a wall to do it, but I'm so excited to finally have room for it. I used it for the first time today and it was so fantastic. Um, also, they're having a big, um, you know, New Year's sale right now. So that is healnourishrow.com/sunlight Whitton. And I'll put all these links in the show notes for you. But anyway, it's just first you have to start though with identifying your goals and identifying what it is to— you want to work on with your health. And some of those, like I just said, are easier than others. But the challenge is prioritizing those for yourself. And certainly if the budget is the primary concern, that's going to make one list look a certain way. If budget is less of a concern, then I would do some of these more next-level things that don't require as much effort. Like I said, the mattress or the sauna or those things, they're a big of initial investment, but they don't require you to really do much, right? You're just going to go to bed on your mattress anyway. That one's super simple. The sauna is pretty easy because you go in there, you can listen to a podcast, you can stretch, you can just lay there and relax and meditate. It's like Once it's there, you have access to it and it just is something that's easy. It's not as more challenging as like the exercise or as doing a specific diet every day. So if you have the opportunity, some of those kinds of changes might be easier to implement. Changing the products— talk— oh, the other place where there's a lot of toxins is cleaning products and things like dish soap, laundry detergent, dishwasher soap. If you If you didn't see that thing that was in the news a little while back, New York State actually outlawed some— well, they outlawed the ingredients, but by extension, certain products of detergent that had like way too many toxins in it and stuff that's really harmful for your health. So definitely start looking at the labels. The Environmental Working Group website is a great resource for that. It kind of lists safer beauty products. I just prefer the route of going with, like I said, The Beauty Counter for skincare and makeup. And then I've gone with Truly Free Home for all of my cleaning products, dishwasher soap. Actually, it's really interesting, the dishwashing soap thing. One of my friends, she's been trying to do a lot of non-toxic stuff too, and she actually— I can't remember if I didn't tell her about the Truly Free one, but she had tried another one that she could just get at the grocery store, and she was telling me about it and she said, oh, I hate it, it just doesn't even clean my my dishes, they're so cloudy I can't use it anymore. And so of course I was like, I was showing her at my party how my glasses are super clean and sparkly, and it's this dishwashing detergent from Truly Free. So, uh, anyway, so there's lots of things like that. Like, that's one set— it's like, for me, it's like once I get it, it's like set it and forget it. Now I don't have to worry about it again. I've got like great discounts. They've got subscriptions. They also are great for the environment because it uses, um, it's all like reusable packaging, so you just get little, um, not Ziplocs, but you have little smushy containers of stuff that you then put into your one plastic container that I've had now for the last 2 years. So I just keep refilling it every time, so it's also environmentally friendly. Um, but yeah, that's kind of the stuff that's on my mind for the new year. I haven't mapped out my 2024 goals yet, but I'm going to start working on that this week. Again, all the resources. If you just go to the website, type in anything that you're wondering about, if you're looking for certain products, go to the shop page. There's the Getting Started with Keto Resource Guide on the website. There are a couple of different podcast episodes like this that I've done at the beginning of other years that give some tips and tricks. Basically, also, if you don't find what you're looking for, or there's a topic that you're wondering about, or there is a subject that you want me to start covering, occurring more regularly, I'm always open to hearing about that, so please reach out. Also, you know, one of the best things that you can do for the podcast— a lot of people either don't know about podcasts or don't get the benefit of them, or just now they're— they've gotten so much more popular, there's so many of them that people can't find what they're looking for that easily. So if you appreciate this podcast and the content and want to support work and help me spread the word, one of the best things you can do to support this is just to share this podcast with your friends. Like, if you find it helpful, or if you find— I mean, I realize not every episode is going to be perfect or speak to everyone, but just anybody that's into health and wellness, if they don't already know about Heal Nourish Grow or the podcast, just share it with your friends. And that's a great way to support the work that I do because most of the resources actually just about all the resources on their website are totally free. Um, and yeah, so just little things like helping me spread the word, and, uh, that, that helps a lot. So I always appreciate that. So for future, uh, reference, I'll have more of a little catch-up on what is kind of going on in the Heal Nourish Grow world, what I'm looking forward to in 2024 as far as the business and trying to work on for you you guys. Um, also would love to hear any ideas there before I map out the year, because if, like I said, if there's topics that you're interested in or things that you'd like to see, I'm definitely open to that and I can work that into the planning. So until next time, have a wonderful rest of your day, and I will talk to you again soon.